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Film
Friday, November 20 2009
By Cynthia Fuchs
As she ponders her future, Bella is less aware than you are that she has very similar effects on the monster boy rivals for her affection -- glowing eyes, rising tempers, pronounced teeth, ungodly strength, usually demonstrated on others of their ilk or furniture.
By Cynthia Fuchs
The pile-on of big emotional moments, accompanied by big music, is overwhelming. This is a movie demanding to be loved.
Monday, November 16 2009
By Cynthia Fuchs
The documentaries of this year's Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival show more than they tell, underlining how each story is shaped not only by subject's self-presentations, but also by the films' frames.
Friday, November 13 2009
By Cynthia Fuchs
Intergenerational dilemmas -- how to be foxes, to be individuals and also parts of communities -- form the complicated heart of Fantastic Mr. Fox.
By Cynthia Fuchs
As the action becomes less fabulous and more repetitive over 2012's 150 minutes, the philosophical debate ratchets up.
By Chris Barsanti
Phillipe Diaz's powerful documentary The End of Poverty? is uncharacteristically revolutionary among today's issue documentaries, and all the more refreshing for its bluntness.
By Cynthia Fuchs
Pirate Radio leaves out any mention of the usual historical and cultural background, say, sex as a potential means of mixing races and classes.
Wednesday, November 11 2009
By Cynthia Fuchs
The familiar format of The Good Soldier helps to underscore what's extraordinary about the veterans' stories.
Tuesday, November 10 2009
By Cynthia Fuchs
Comprised of split screens, overlapping and overlaid sounds, an assemblage of images and noise, Copyright Criminals effectively stages its argument even as it makes it.
Monday, November 9 2009
By Cynthia Fuchs
Death Bell's tight focus on students' fears embodied is elegant even as it's unsettling.
By Jesse Hassenger
The Box feigns straightforwardness for half an hour or so, but Richard Kelly only uses the set-up as the firm handle from which he can fly off.
Friday, November 6 2009
By Cynthia Fuchs
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire is concerned with lasting effects -- on individuals and especially, on communities.
By Cynthia Fuchs
Setting up easy targets, The Men Who Stare at Goats seems less clever than behind the times.
By Chris Barsanti
Endgame crafts a crackling thriller out of the tangle of crafty maneuvering and happenstance that put a stop to South Africa's apartheid.
By Cynthia Fuchs
Where is Fox Mulder when you need him?
By Chris Barsanti
The combination of animation (where the laws of physics are conveniently suspended) and 3D technology is a powerful temptation, and here we see many of the ways in which those toys can be misued.
By Renee Scolaro Mora
Even as Gentlemen Broncos makes sport of artistic hacks, it also delights in their creative process.
Thursday, November 5 2009
By Jesse Hassenger
The many makers of New York, I Love Youare collectively too self-conscious about the New Yorkiness of their task.
By Cynthia Fuchs
It's all but impossible to represent randomness. And yet this is the task taken up by Act of God, Jennifer Baichwal's documentary on lightning.
Wednesday, November 4 2009
By Cynthia Fuchs
Work is at the center of Frederick Wiseman's absorbing documentary, La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet.
more Features
Friday, November 20 2009
By PopMatters Staff
Today: Viva Pedro: The Almodovar Interview -- What could possibly be better than getting face time with one of the most legendary filmmakers of all-time? Almodóvar talks to PopMatters about his new film, Broken Embraces and much more.
Friday, November 6 2009
By Alistair Dickinson
These five films from the golden-era of the legendary Nikkatsu studio shows off the never-ending ways Japanese filmmakers were able to combine the best elements of pulp and epic Japanese storytelling.
Friday, October 30 2009
By Stephen Rylance
Despite the efforts of some to dismiss it as a prank, Antichrist is a serious film and its disturbing extremes speak of broad and deeply felt moral, social, and ultimately, political anxieties.
Friday, November 13 2009
By Matt Mazur
Danish director Lone Scherfig spares audiences the trite clichés of a young woman's coming of age, directs a magnificent cast of actors, and defends her film against allegations of inappropriate sexuality.
(more Suffragette City)
Monday, November 9 2009
By Glenn McDonald
Researchers have largely ignored the pop cultural value of the H1N1 virus: hours on the couch catching up on DVD.
(more PopShots)
Monday, November 2 2009
By Monte Williams
More surprising than the still-impressive special effects and the jokes that hold up to modern scrutiny is the fact that there are moments throughout Ghostbusters that are legitimately scary.
(more Lowbrow Literati)
more DVD Reviews
Friday, November 20 2009
By Stuart Henderson
Now is the right time to revisit Costa-Gavras' response to the defeats of 1968, all shot through with allusions to a burgeoning transnational revolutionary solidarity.
By Scott Jordan Harris
Buñuel made so many masterpieces in his near 50-year career that those films of his that are merely very good tend to be overlooked. Death in the Garden is just such a film.
By Emma Simmonds
This series acted as a springboard for an astonishing plethora of British talent such as Julia Davis, Tamsin Greig, Robert Webb, David Tennant and Bill Nighy.
Thursday, November 19 2009
By Michael Curtis Nelson
A portrait of a muralist who’s spent his life filling buildings with mosaics is also a family drama and a primer on successfully coping with mental illness.
Wednesday, November 18 2009
By Shaun Huston
Despite bringing film noir into the daylight and into color, this is among the darkest of Southern California tales.
Sunday, November 22 2009
Saturday, November 21 2009
Friday, November 20 2009
Thursday, November 19 2009
Wednesday, November 18 2009
Friday, November 20 2009
Thursday, November 19 2009
Wednesday, November 18 2009
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